Cory Doctorow Launches New Fight against Copyrights, Creative Chokepoints, and Big Tech's 'Chokepoint Capitalism'

"Creators aren't getting paid," says Cory Doctorow. "That's because powerful corporations have figured out how to create chokepoints — that let them snatch up more of the value generated by creative work before it reaches creative workers." But he's doing something about it.

Doctorow's collaborated with Rebecca Giblin, the director of Australia's Intellectual Property Research Institute, for a new book that first sheds light on the tricks Big Tech and Big Content use. Specific ideas for how we can make labor markets more sustainable are presented. Their announcement says the book is "built around shovel- ready ideas for shattering the chokepoints that squeeze creators and audiences - technical, commercial and legal blueprints for artists, fans, arts organizations, technologists, and governments."

They say their main focus is action. The authors offer a range of powerful strategies for fighting back. It was described as a credible, actionable vision for a better, more collaborative future. The book was called an inspiring call to collective action.

There is a book called " Chokepoint Capitalism: How Big Tech and Big Content Captured Creative Labor Markets and How We'll Win Them Back" There is a question about ownership on their page. Every question about creators rights had the same answer for 40 years. What did artists think about that? Jimmy Wales is one of the co- founders of the internet encyclopedia. You need worker power, antitrust, and solidarity in a rigged market for that to be possible.

In the first five days of the campaign, it has raised over 72,000 dollars. One of the points of the book is that Amazon won't sell it. The book can be purchased on Amazon in either a hardcover or e-book edition. If you're a publisher or writer who wants to sell your audiobook on Audible, you have to let it be wrapped in Digital Rights Management, otherwise it will be locked up. If a reader leaves Audible, they won't be able to take their books with them. When a book is sold byAudible, it gives it more power to shake down authors and publishers. Amazon uses that stolen margin to eliminate competition and lock in more users, giving it more power over the people who actually make and produce books.

The announcement says their book "is about traps like the one Audible lays for writers and readers. We show how Big Tech and Big Content erect chokepoints between creators and audiences, allowing them to lock in artists and producers, eliminate competition, and extract far more than their fair share of revenues from creative labour. No way are we going to let Audible put its locks on our audiobook. "So we're kickstarting it instead."

According to the announcement, Doctorow will not allow digital locks on any of his books. "Cory had an idea: what if he used a crowd funding platform to sell his next audiobook?" The audiobook campaign was the most successful of its kind.

So now Cory's working instead with independent audiobook studio Skyboat Media "to make great editions, which are sold everywhere except Audible (and Apple, which only carries Audible books): Libro.fm, Downpour, Google Play and his own storefront. Cory's first kickstarter didn't just smash all audiobook crowdfunding records — it showed publishers and other writers that there were tons of people who cared enough about writers getting paid fairly that they were willing to walk away from Amazon's golden cage. Now we want to send that message again — this time with a book that takes you behind the curtain to unveil the Machiavellian tactics Amazon and the other big tech and content powerhouses use to lock in users, creators and suppliers, eliminate competition, and extract more than their fair share....

Chokepoint Capitalism is more than just a read and a pleasant listen.

Your willingness to break out of the one-click default of buying from theAudible monopoly in support of projects like this sends a clear message to writers, publishers, and policymakers that you have had enough of the unfair treatment of creative workers.

Rewards include ebooks, audiobooks, hardcover copies, and even the donation of a copy to your local library. You can also pledge money without claiming a reward, or pledge $1 as a show of support for "a cryptographically signed email thanking you for backing the project. Think of it as a grift-free NFT." Craig Newmark says the book documents "the extent to which competition's been lost throughout the creative industries, and how this pattern threatens every other worker. There is still time to do something about it, but the time to act is now."